Hello Happiness?

Video Link:   Coca Cola: Hello Happiness

This video called ‘Hello Happiness’ was published by Coca-Cola in March 2014. It depicts South Asian construction laborers in the United Arab Emirates using the tops of Coca-Cola bottles as currency in a branded phone booth that allows them to make a three-minute international call to their families back home. Coke is paying for the phone call, branding the booth, and the laborers are paying for the Coke bottles.

This video shows laborers in hard hats and reflective vests lining up to use the special phone booth, and grinning. One of the labors said to the camera “I’ve saved one more cap, so I can talk to my wife again tomorrow.” According to the ad, construction laborers in the United Arab Emirates have an average income of $6 per day and have to pay up to $0.91 per minute to call home. A bottle of Coke costs $0.54 in Dubai currently, so the laborers are paying $0.54 for a three-minute call rather than $2.7.

More than forty thousand people made calls using the five special phone booths installed by Coca-Cola in Dubai labor camps. In April 2014, after the booths had been up for about a month, the company dismantled them.

This campaign was created by the advertising agency called Y&R Dubai and belongs to part of a larger push into digital advertising in this region. On the whole, this ad was a success since it spread virally on the Internet and the majority of the comments were positive and supportive on social media.

However, there were also objections to this campaign. “So now all they are going ot drink is coca cola. One of the most unhealthy beverages on the planet, while they work in sweltering heat under slave like conditions.,” one commented on the Youtube. Another viewer of the ad said “No offense, but ‘Happiness’ would be working conditions that don’t cause thousands of deaths, non-exploitative contracts, fair wages”. The question is whether Coca-Cola is shedding light on a little-known human-rights crisis and, in its own small way, helping to alleviate the troubles of the victims of that crisis, or whether it is adding to the exploitation of migrant workers in the Middle East and Asia.